Rick Stroud

Non-fiction writer

Courtauld Institute of Art

Rick Stroud is a bestselling historian specialising in the events of World War Two. While his first volume, The Book of the Moon, had nothing to do with the war the rest of his work describes dramatic incidents and how they affected the lives of individuals during the war years. His latest book, Lonely Courage, is about the women of ‘F’ Section of the Special Operations Executive parachuted by moonlight into German-occupied France.

Rick Stroud has also collaborated with World War Two veteran Victor Gregg on a trilogy of books about Gregg’s extraordinary life. The challenge of the collaboration was to render Victor’s convoluted and sometimes impenetrable prose into understandable English whilst not losing Gregg’s unique working-class voice. The result is a trilogy of books which have been described by the national press as ‘classics of their kind’. Rick Stroud has continued to tour with Victor Gregg lecturing to adults and sixth formers about Victor’s life with special reference to Dresden where Victor was a prisoner of war the night it was firebombed. The Stroud/Gregg descriptions of the five terrible days Gregg spent in the city have been compared to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

Rick is also an award-winning film director specialising in action-adventure and comedy. He has written several screenplays, one of which he directed. He finds the screenplay a difficult and unsatisfying form. He was Chairman of the Chelsea Arts Club and is a trustee of the London Library.